MESA Database User Guide€¦ · Register for a Sub-event ... They can maintain their profiles and join events to which they have been invited. These accounts are automatically approved,

MESA Database User Guide

MESA Database User Guide Page 2 of 55 Last updated: December 2, 2010

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5

Login Screen .......................................................................................................................... 5

Dashboard .............................................................................................................................. 6

My Profile ............................................................................................................................... 7

School Management .............................................................................................................. 8

Search for a School ............................................................................................................. 8

Add a School to Your Center ............................................................................................... 8

Remove a School from Your Center.................................................................................... 8

User Manager ......................................................................................................................... 9

User Roles .......................................................................................................................... 9

Center Administrators ..................................................................................................... 9

Advisors .......................................................................................................................... 9

Facilitators ....................................................................................................................... 9

Guests ............................................................................................................................ 9

Staff .............................................................................................................................. 10

Students ........................................................................................................................ 10

Volunteers ..................................................................................................................... 10

User Actions ...................................................................................................................... 11

Add a User .................................................................................................................... 11

Registration E-mail ........................................................................................................ 12

Returning Users ............................................................................................................ 12

Add to 2010-11 ............................................................................................................. 13

Invite? Feature .............................................................................................................. 14

New Students ................................................................................................................ 15

Returning Students ....................................................................................................... 16

Enrollment Form ........................................................................................................... 17

Student Enrollment Form, Page 1: Basic Information ........................................................... 18 Student Enrollment Form, Page 2: Record Information ........................................................ 18 Student Enrollment Form, Page 3: Transcript Information .................................................... 18 Student Enrollment Form, Page 4: Graduate Information (11th and 12th graders only) ......... 19

Search Users ................................................................................................................ 20

Search Results .................................................................................................................... 21 Export to Excel ................................................................................................................ 21 Perform New Search ....................................................................................................... 21 Export Tool ...................................................................................................................... 22 Display Search Criteria .................................................................................................... 23 Email These Users .......................................................................................................... 24 Invite Selected Users ...................................................................................................... 24

Table of Contents (continued)


Update Year .................................................................................................................... 24 View User...................................................................................................................... 25

Edit User ....................................................................................................................... 25

Add/Remove Roles .............................................................................................................. 26 Remove User ................................................................................................................ 26

Enroll/Unenroll and Activate/Deactivate ........................................................................ 27

Allow Login and Disallow Login ..................................................................................... 27

Pending Tab .................................................................................................................. 28

Login Problems ............................................................................................................. 28

Forgot Username ................................................................................................................. 29 Forgot Password .................................................................................................................. 29 Issue Password Reset ......................................................................................................... 30 Change Password ............................................................................................................... 30

Event Manager ..................................................................................................................... 31

Event Actions .................................................................................................................... 31

Add Event ..................................................................................................................... 31

All-Day Event ....................................................................................................................... 31 Directions............................................................................................................................. 32 Registration Info................................................................................................................... 33 Waitlist ................................................................................................................................. 33 Email on Registrations? ....................................................................................................... 33 Email on Waitlistings? .......................................................................................................... 33 Allow Conflicts? ................................................................................................................... 33 Centers ................................................................................................................................ 34 SAPEP Categories .............................................................................................................. 34

Current/Upcoming Events ............................................................................................. 35

Actions Column.................................................................................................................... 35 View Event ...................................................................................................................... 36

Invitation URL .............................................................................................................................. 37 Sub-events .................................................................................................................................. 37 Documents .................................................................................................................................. 37 Notification Recipients ................................................................................................................. 38 Messages .................................................................................................................................... 39

Event Banner ......................................................................................................................... 39 Registration Email .................................................................................................................. 39 Waitlisted Email ...................................................................................................................... 39 Event Full ............................................................................................................................... 39

Registrants .................................................................................................................................. 40 Add Registrant ....................................................................................................................... 40 Email Selected Registrants .................................................................................................... 42 Email All Event Registrants .................................................................................................... 43 Event Export Tool ................................................................................................................... 43 View Registrant ...................................................................................................................... 43 Unregister ............................................................................................................................... 44

Waiting List .................................................................................................................................. 44 Register .................................................................................................................................. 44 Unregister ............................................................................................................................... 44

Edit Event........................................................................................................................ 45 Register Attendees .......................................................................................................... 45

Table of Contents (continued)


Copy Event ..................................................................................................................... 46 Remove Event ................................................................................................................ 46

Past Events ................................................................................................................... 46

Search for an event ....................................................................................................... 47

Event Search Results .......................................................................................................... 48 Add Event ....................................................................................................................... 48 Export to Excel ................................................................................................................ 48 Redo Search ................................................................................................................... 48

My Events ......................................................................................................................... 49

View Event .................................................................................................................... 49

View a Sub-event ................................................................................................................. 50 Register for a Sub-event ...................................................................................................... 50 View Event Documents ........................................................................................................ 50 Print Registration Confirmation ............................................................................................ 50 Cancel Registration ............................................................................................................. 50

Survey Manager ................................................................................................................... 51

Reporting.............................................................................................................................. 51

Navigation Tips .................................................................................................................... 52

Home ................................................................................................................................. 52

Breadcrumbs ..................................................................................................................... 52

Quick User Search ............................................................................................................ 52

Center Administration ......................................................................................................... 53

Edit Center ........................................................................................................................ 53

Custom Parental Authorization Form (PAF) ...................................................................... 54

Banner ............................................................................................................................... 54

Frequently Asked Questions .............................................................................................. 55

Why is student grade level data missing? I can see it in the student profile! ..................... 55


Introduction

One of the country's most innovative and successful programs, MESA works with thousands of educationally disadvantaged students so they excel in math and science and graduate with math-based degrees.

The MESA Database (MESA DB) replaces the OIS database. User and event data for 2007-2010 have been transferred from OIS to the MESA DB.

The MESA DB URL is: http://mesadb.ucop.edu/

Login Screen

When you view the MESA DB in your web browser, you'll see a login screen:

Figure 1: Login screen

Enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes and click Log in to proceed.

If you have forgotten your username or password, you can click Forgot Username? or Forgot Password? to have the information e-mailed to you.

If you don't have a MESA DB account, ask your center administrator or center staff members to create an account for you.

http://mesadb.ucop.edu/�


Dashboard

After you've logged into the MESA DB, you'll see the Dashboard. From here, you can click My Profile to update your information or go to the User Manager, Event Manager, Schools or Center Administration.

The Dashboard also features shortcuts to popular actions, such as Add a User, Create an Event, and Quick User Search.

Figure 2: Dashboard


My Profile

Enter new profile data if your information is outdated. Required data fields are denoted with a red asterisk (*).

If your profile is longer than one page, navigate with Next Page and Prev Page or pull down the menu next to Go to Page and choose a page. These actions will also save your information.

Click Save to save your information and continue working.

Click Save & Exit to save your data and log you out of the MESA DB. You can log in later and continue to edit your profile data.

On the last page of your profile, click Finish to make sure that you've completed all of the required fields.

If you click Finish without filling in all required fields, you will be notified with warnings in bold, red text. Click on a warning message to be returned to the page with missing information.

Figure 3: Profile screen with missing required questions highlighted in bold, red text


School Management

Under the Schools tab, you can search for California schools based on name, county, and/or CDS code.

Search for a School Search for schools based on name, county, and/or CDS code. Click Perform Search.

Figure 4: Searching for a school

Add a School to Your Center

This feature is only available to center administrators.

Click Assign to Center to add the desired school to your center. This button will only appear if the school hasn't already been assigned to your center or another MESA center.

Figure 5: Assigning a school to your center

Remove a School from Your Center This feature is only available to center administrators.

Under Assigned Schools, you'll see all of the schools assigned to your center. Click Remove from Center to remove it from your center.

Figure 6: Removing a school from your center


User Manager

User Roles

There are seven different user roles in the MESA DB, and each one has different privileges in the system. All users have basic privileges, such as maintaining their profiles and joining events to which they have been invited, but additional privileges, if any, are detailed below.

A user's role should represent his/her function in the MESA program. For example, if you have a student worker to whom you have entrusted center administration, that person should be given the "administrator" role instead of the "student" role.

Only student roles can be created via Enroll Me in 2010-2011, which is located on the MESA DB login page. All other user roles, with the exception of Guests, must be created via Add a User.

Center Administrators

Center administrators have complete control over their centers. A center administrator can create, view, edit and remove all user accounts at his/her center. They can also add, edit and remove all events that were created by their center. These accounts are automatically approved, and the user can immediately log into the system.

Advisors

An advisor can view and edit user records for students and advisors from his/her school. Advisors can edit student records to enter the EDI data that they've collected. Advisor accounts expire every year on July 1 and need to be approved by the center. Before account approval, Advisors can log in and edit their profile information, but they cannot access the rest of the MESA DB.

Facilitators

Facilitators have limited control over their centers. A facilitator can view and edit records for all users at his/her center but can only create non-administrator center accounts. They can also create events and edit events that were created by their center. These accounts are automatically approved, and the user can immediately log into the system.

Guests

Guests only have basic system privileges. They can maintain their profiles and join events to which they have been invited. These accounts are automatically approved, and the user can immediately log into the system.

If visitors follow an event Invitation URL, they can create a Guest account via the "I'm a New Guest" link.


Staff

Staff members also have limited control over their centers. A staff member can view and edit records for all users at his/her center but can only create non-administrator center accounts. They can also create events and edit events that were created by their center. These accounts are automatically approved, and the user can immediately log into the system.

Students

Students only have basic system privileges. They can maintain their profiles and join events to which they have been invited. Student accounts expire every year on July 1 and need to be approved by the center after they've received the student's signed and verified Parental Authorization Form (PAF). Before account approval, Students can log in and edit their profile information, but they cannot access the rest of the MESA DB.

Volunteers

Volunteers only have basic system privileges. They can maintain their profiles and join events to which they have been invited. These accounts are automatically approved, and the user can immediately log into the system.


User Actions

Add a User

Center administrators, facilitators and staff members can access this feature from the Dashboard. For some user roles, the Add a User option also appears if you hover your mouse over the User Manager tab.

Specify the role for the user, and fill in the required fields, which are denoted with a red asterisk (*). Required fields will differ based on the specified role.

Figure 7: Add a User

The system checks if the person already has an account, matching on the non-student user's first name, last name, and e-mail address. Students are matched differently on first name, last name and birth date, since a student may not necessarily have an e-mail address.

If the user account exists, you will be notified with the message, "Your user may already exist in our database." Click Choose This User to select this user and proceed to the next step.

Figure 8: Existing user account found in the system


Registration E-mail

At this point, you will be brought to the Edit User screen. You can fill in the information on the user's behalf, or you can let the user fill in his/her own profile information. To do this, click Registration Email at the top. This will send the user an e-mail message and prompt him/her to complete the profile information.

Figure 9: Send registration e-mail

Returning Users

IMPORTANT: In order for a user to log in to the system, s/he must have a User Role for the current academic year.

If a user had a login account in OIS in the 2009-10 academic year, then s/he can use Forgot Username? and Forgot Password? to have their login credentials e-mailed to them. If the user does not remember or no longer has access to the e-mail address associated with that record, then the center administrator, facilitator, or staff member can retrieve and/or edit that information in the MESA DB.

There are a couple of different ways to add a role to non-student users for the current year:

1. The center admin, facilitator or staff member uses the blue Add to 2010-11 checkboxes to select the user(s) and clicks on Update Year.

2. The center admin, facilitator or staff member uses the green Invite? checkboxes to send an e-mail to the user to register for the current academic year.


Add to 2010-11

These blue checkboxes will only appear next to users who don't have a role for the current academic year. This column is only available to center administrators, facilitators and staff.

Click the blue checkboxes next to the desired user(s) and click Update Year to give the selected user(s) a role for the current year. The system will "remember" your selections across multiple pages, so depending on the number of search results, you can navigate with the first, prev 100, next 100 and last links to select the desired users from your search results.

The system will also automatically increment a student's grade level based on the grade level in his/her last active MESA year, taking into account any elapsed years. The Add to 2010-11 functionality will copy the user's most recent role.

If a user has gained additional responsibility and you need to change his/her role in the MESA DB, see Add/Edit/Remove Roles.

Figure 10: Use the Update Year button to give a role to users for the current academic year.


Invite? Feature

These green checkboxes will only appear next to users who have a username and e-mail address. This column is only available to center administrators, facilitators, and staff.

Click the green checkboxes next to the desired users and click Invite Selected Users to send an e-mail invitation to the selected users. The system will "remember" your selections across multiple pages, so depending on the number of search results, you can navigate with the first, prev 100, next 100 and last links to select the desired users from your search results.

If you want to change a user's role, you must do so before sending out the e-mail invitation. See Add/Edit/Remove Roles. If you have mistakenly sent out an e-mail invitation prior to changing a user's role, change the user's role and then send out another e-mail invitation.

Figure 11: Use the Invite Selected Users button to ask users to register for the current academic year.


New Students

If your center allows students to self-register for the MESA DB, students can click Enroll Me in 2010-2011 on the Login Screen. Students will indicate their program, center and school. Then they'll enter their first name, last name, and birth date.

Figure 12: New student signup screen

The system matches student records based on first name, last name, and birth date, so if the student already exists in the MESA DB but is trying to create a new account, s/he will be asked if s/he has attended any of the schools that are associated with users with the same first name, last name, and birth date.

Figure 13: Existing user account found in the system

If the student clicks on a school name that is associated with an existing account, s/he will proceed to the Enrollment Form.


Returning Students

If a student had a login account in OIS, then s/he can use Forgot Username? and Forgot Password? to have their login credentials e-mailed to them. If the student does not remember or no longer has access to the e-mail address associated with that record, then the center administrator, facilitator, or staff member can retrieve and/or edit that information in the MESA DB. The school advisor can also help in a similar capacity, but they're limited to students records at their school, not the entire center.

There are a couple of ways for center users to give students a role for the current academic year:

1. The center admin, facilitator or staff member uses the blue Add to 2010-11 checkboxes and clicks on Update Year.

2. The center admin, facilitator or staff member uses the green Invite? checkboxes to send an e-mail to the student to register for the current academic year.

Once a returning student has a role for the current year, s/he can log in and proceed to the Enrollment Form.

A student can also give himself/herself a role for the current year in the following ways:

1. A new student self-registers via Enroll Me in 2010-2011 and proceeds to the Enrollment Form.

2. A returning student self-registers via Enroll Me in 2010-2011 and enters data that matches an existing account in the MESA DB. At that point, the student account receives a role for the current academic year, and s/he proceeds to the Enrollment Form.


Enrollment Form

Required data fields are denoted with a red asterisk (*). The student enrollment form is three to four pages long, so navigate with Next Page and Prev Page or pull down the menu next to Go to Page and choose a page.

Click Save to save your information and continue working.

Click Save & Exit to save your data and log you out of the MESA DB.

On the last page of the student profile, click Finish to make sure that you've completed all of the required fields. If you click Finish without filling in all required fields, you will be notified with warnings in bold, red text. Click on a warning message to be returned to the page with missing information.

Figure 14: Student enrollment form, page 1


Student Enrollment Form, Page 1: Basic Information

Page 1 asks for basic student information. E-mail address is an optional field to accommodate centers that don't allow students to log in. However, since the student logged in to reach this page, the Username and E-mail Address fields are required.

You cannot proceed beyond this page without filling in all of the required fields. This is the minimum amount of information that each student record must contain.

Student Enrollment Form, Page 2: Record Information

Page 2 asks for information about the student's primary home language, academic programs, career interest, and the parents' educational and occupational background.

Student Enrollment Form, Page 3: Transcript Information

Page 3 asks for a student's standardized test results and transcript information.

To add a standardized test score, enter the requested information and click Add Test.

To edit a test that you've already added, click Edit next to the desired test. Change the test name, type, score and/or year, and click Update Test.

To delete a test score, click Remove next to the desired test.


To add a course to the transcript, enter the requested information and click Add Course.

To edit a course that you've already added, click Edit next to the desired course. Change the course name, grade and/or grade level, and click Update Course.

To delete a course, click Remove next to the desired course.


Student Enrollment Form, Page 4: Graduate Information (11th and 12th graders only)

Page 4 asks about a student's post-high school plans. This page only appears if the student has specified that s/he is in 11th or 12th grade. None of the questions are required.



Search Users

You can search for users based on many different criteria, such as First Name, Last Name, Username, Ethnicity, City, Gender, Email, Grade Levels, Login Status, Approval Status, and Academic Year(s).

Center administrators, facilitators, and staff members can also search by user roles and schools. Advisors are restricted to seeing advisors and students from their associated school, so they don't get to specify a role or school for their user search.

To search by Academic Year, move the desired year(s) from the left box to the right box. Select a year and click on the blue arrow pointing to the right. To choose more than one year, hold the Shift key and select years before clicking on the blue arrow. If you only want to move a single year to the right box, double-click on the year. To search across all academic years, don't select any years and leave the right-hand box empty.

Click Perform Search, which is located at both the top and bottom of the search form.

Figure 17: Search Users screen


The user search is an "AND" search, so if you type "Jerry" into the First Name field and "Long Beach" into the City field, the search will only return users who are named Jerry AND reside in Long Beach.

The user search performs wildcard searches for all of the text fields, so if you search for "Anne" in the "First Name" field, the system will find both Sue-Anne and Anne-Marie. As a result, if you simply enter "a" in the "Last Name" field, the system will find everyone with the letter "a" in their last name. Please keep this in mind as you perform user searches.

Search Results

Now that you've found the desired users, many actions are available to you.

Figure 18: Search results

Export to Excel

This downloads the information that you currently see on the screen into an Excel spreadsheet: Name, School & City, Email, Approval Status, Center, Role, Year, Grade, PAF, and Login Status.

Perform New Search

This initiates a new search.


Export Tool

This lets you choose information from the user profile that you'd like to download. Click and drag the data fields and profile questions from the left box to the right box.

If you have performed a search on a specific user role and want to auto-select all of the role's required fields, use the Click here to auto select Required fields link at the top of the page. If you have performed a search on multiple roles, this will auto-select the required fields for all of the roles that have been specified in the search.

Rearrange the fields so that the desired sort field is first. If you want the downloaded data to be sorted by last name, make sure that User Last Name is at the top. Since the resulting file is an Excel spreadsheet, you can also re-sort the data after you've downloaded it.

Click Submit Request to download the file.

Figure 19: Export tool – select data fields to export


Display Search Criteria

If you can't remember the specifics of your search, hover your mouse over Display Search Criteria, and a box will appear with the search details.

Figure 20: Display search criteria


Email These Users

This allows you to send an e-mail to every person in your search results who has an e-mail address. In Figure 20 above, this means that the system will only send an e-mail to Marissa Kawasaki. She is the only person in the search results with an e-mail address listed.

Since the e-mail is being sent from the MESA DB, it won't keep a copy of the message in your e-mail program's Sent folder.

Figure 21: Email These Users – message composition screen

Enter an e-mail subject line and message.

If you'd like to include an attachment, click Browse… to navigate to a file on your computer. Click Upload File. If the attachment was successful, you'll see a message at the top:

You have added a new file attachment

Repeat these steps if you'd like to attach multiple files.

Click Send Message.

Invite Selected Users

See Invite? Feature.

Update Year

See Add to 2010-11.


View User

Click View next to desired user to see his/her profile. If the profile is longer than one page, navigate with Next Page and Prev Page or pull down the menu next to Go to Page and choose a page.

Click Edit Record to edit the user's record.

Click Exit to return to the Search Results.

Figure 22: View user screen

Edit User

Edit a user's profile information. E-mail address is an optional field to accommodate centers that don't allow students to log in, but if you specify a username, you are required to provide an e-mail address.

If you are editing a student record, you will see the post-high school plans page, regardless of the student's grade level.

From the Edit User screen, you can also access Add/Remove Roles and Registration Email.


Add/Remove Roles

If you want to change a user's role in the MESA DB, go to the Edit User screen and click Add/Remove Roles. This button is only available to center administrators.

Figure 23: Edit User screen - Add/Remove Roles button

Once you reach the Center Assignment screen, you have a few options.

Figure 24: Add/Remove Roles (Center Assignment) screen

Click Assign/Update Center to give the user a role.

Click Edit to change the user's role for the specified academic year.

Click Remove to remove the user's role for the specified academic year.

Click Export to Excel to download the information that you see on the screen into an Excel spreadsheet.

Once you've given a user a role for the current year, a link will appear that lets you Activate the user (Enroll if the user is a student). This is to save you from having to go back to the search results and clicking on the Activate (or Enroll) link from that screen.

Remove User

This removes the user from the MESA DB. DO NOT use this if you only want to remove a user's role for a specific year. You should use Add/Remove Roles instead.


Enroll/Unenroll and Activate/Deactivate

For students who have been given a User Role for the current academic year, you will see the Enroll button next to their records. Clicking on Enroll means that the student's signed Parental Authorization Form (PAF) has been received and verified by the center. After you have clicked Enroll, the Approval Status column value automatically changes from inactive to active. If the student record has an e-mail address associated, the student receives an e-mail message about his/her account approval.

If the student's parent revokes authorization or the student cannot participate in MESA for another reason, you can click Unenroll to change the student's Approval Status to inactive. No e-mail messages are sent out as a result of this action.

Figure 25: Enroll button

A similar button shows up for advisors, since their participation in the MESA program needs to be renewed from year to year. For advisors who have been given a User Role for the current academic year, you will see Activate next to their records. Clicking on the Activate button means that MESA has approved the advisor to participate in the program for the academic year. The advisor receives an e-mail message about his/her account approval.

Allow Login and Disallow Login

For users who have a User Role for the current academic year, you will see Allow-Login or Disallow-Login next to their records. Click Allow-Login to allow the user to log in to the MESA DB, provided s/he has both a username and e-mail address. If one or both are missing, you will be prompted to provide them before the action can be completed.

After you click Allow-Login and the user has a username and e-mail address, the Login Status column value changes from no-access to access. If you edit the user record to remove username and/or e-mail address, the Login Status column value will change back to no-access.

For students who self-register on the MESA DB Web site, their Login Status is automatically set to access.


If you wish to stop a user from logging in to the MESA DB at any time, click Disallow-Login next to his/her user record.

Figure 26: Disallow Login button

Pending Tab

Students and advisors will appear in the Pending tab if they have completed all of the required fields in their profiles and they've clicked Finish on the last page of the user profile. As a convenience, the Pending tab lists all users who are awaiting account approval in one location.

Login Problems

In order for a user to log in to the MESA DB, s/he must have a User Role for the current academic year. If a user tries to log in without having a role for the current year, s/he will be sent back to the Login Screen and shown the message:

Your account is not active for the current year. Please contact your MESA advisor or administrator.

Check Returning Users and Returning Students for ways to add a User Role for the current year.


Forgot Username

If you've forgotten your username, click Forgot Username? on the Login Screen. You'll be prompted to enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address that is associated with the account. If all three of these data pieces match, you'll receive an e-mail note with your username.

Figure 27: Forgot Username screen

Forgot Password

If you've forgotten your password, click Forgot Password? on the Login Screen. You'll be prompted to enter your username and e-mail address that is associated with the account. If both pieces of data match, you'll receive an e-mail note with a temporary password.

Figure 28: Forgot Password screen

After you successfully log in with the temporary password, you'll be asked to specify a permanent password, which must meet certain security criteria.


Issue Password Reset

Center administrators, facilitators, and staff members can click Edit User and then Issue Password Reset to send a temporary password to the e-mail address in the user account. School advisors also have access to this feature, but they are limited to students at their associated school.

For security reasons, we do not allow admins to specify passwords for other users' accounts. Only the end user should know his/her password.

Figure 29: Issue Password Reset

Change Password


Event Manager

The Event Manager tab is only available to center administrators, facilitators and staff members. If you are a/an Advisor, Guest, Student, or Volunteer, you will see a My Events tab.

You can click the down arrow to sort available items in ascending order (a-z, oldest to

newest) and the up arrow to sort items in descending order (z-a, newest to oldest).

Event Actions

Add Event

Center administrators, facilitators and staff members can access this feature from the Dashboard. For some user roles, the Add Event option also appears if you hover your mouse over the Event Manager tab.

Fill in the required fields, which are denoted with a red asterisk (*).

Figure 30: Add Event screen – event details

All-Day Event

Check this box if you are planning an all-day event. If the box is checked, you won't need to specify times for the event.


Directions

In this space, you can include directions for users. If you'd like to link to a Google map URL, type "Directions to Event" and select the text that you want to link.

Once you've selected the text with your mouse, the link icon, which is located next to the underline icon, will be available.

Figure 31: The link icon is available

Click the link icon.

This will open a pop-up window, so be sure you've turned off your pop-up blocker software.

Figure 32: Insert link

Copy and paste the Google map URL into the Link URL box.

If you enter a URL without http://, you will encounter this confirmation message:

Figure 33: Complete URL needed

Click OK, and the http:// will be automatically added to your link.

For Target, indicate whether you want the link to open in the same browser window or in a new browser window on the visitor's computer. You can leave this on the – Not set – option without triggering an error.

In the Title box, enter any text that you want to appear when the user hovers over the link with a mouse. You can leave this blank without triggering an error.

Click Insert when you're done.

If you'd like to remove the link, select the linked text again and click the link icon. Remove the URL from the Link URL box and click Update.


Registration Info

Enter a number if you'd like to limit the event registration to a certain number of people. By leaving it blank, the event registration is unlimited.

Waitlist

If you have specified a Registration Limit and the event has reached its capacity, anyone who attempts to register will be added to the waiting list.

If you don't enable a waiting list, people who attempt to register will be notified that the event is full.

Select Yes if you'd like to enable a waiting list for your event. The default value is No.

Email on Registrations?

Check this box if you'd like to be e-mailed every time someone registers for the event. The system will send messages to the e-mail address(es) listed on the Notification Recipients tab.

Email on Waitlistings?

Check this box if you'd like to be e-mailed every time someone is added to the waiting list for the event. The system will send messages to the e-mail address(es) listed on the Notification Recipients tab.

Allow Conflicts?

Check this box if you want to allow people to register for sub-events at conflicting times. For example, if you are planning MESA Day and have a windmill sub-event at 8-10 AM and a robotics sub-event at 9-11 AM but want students to be able to sign up for both, you should check this box.

If the box is not checked, users will not be allowed to register for sub-events at conflicting times.


Centers

Click in the checkbox next to the centers that you wish to participate in the event. As a result, the invited centers will see this event in their Current/Upcoming Events tab.

By default, your center is already checked.

Figure 34: Add Event screen – Centers

SAPEP Categories

Click in the checkbox next to the SAPEP categories that apply to your event. This is not required but is very important for the statewide office's SAPEP reporting.

Figure 35: Add Event screen – SAPEP categories


Current/Upcoming Events

The Current/Upcoming Events page lists all current and upcoming events at your center – or to which your center has been invited by another center.

The Sub-events column indicates the number of sub-events within a main/parent event. The # Reg column indicates the number of people who have registered for the event. The Reg Limit column is the event's Registration Limit, if the option has been enabled.

Figure 36: Current/Upcoming Events screen

Buttons in the Actions column let you View Event, Edit Event, Register Attendees, Copy Event or Remove Event.

You can also Export to Excel, which downloads the information that you currently see on the screen into an Excel spreadsheet.

Actions Column

If your center created the event, you'll see the available actions in the Actions column:

Figure 37: Close-up of Actions column

If your center was invited to an event that was created by another center, you'll only see the View and Register Attendees buttons in the Actions column.


View Event

If you click View in the Actions column, you'll be brought to the View Event screen, which lists the event details.

Additionally, the information and tabs at the bottom of the screen will help with your event coordination.

Figure 38: View Event screen


Invitation URL

Once you've created an event, you can invite people to attend by e-mailing them the Invitation URL. Copy and paste the URL into an e-mail message and send it to your desired attendees.

Sub-events

A standalone event will meet most center needs, but if you are planning a large event (i.e., MESA Day, MASME) with smaller breakout sessions, you can create sub-events within a parent event.

In the Sub-events tab, click Add Sub-event. Most of the sub-event details (All-Day Event, start and end date/time, registration start and end date/time, Centers, and SAPEP Categories) have been pre-populated with the details from the parent event.

Documents

Click the Documents tab to add documents that you'd like to make available to event registrants. These documents will be available to everyone who registers for the event, so if you have a document that you'd like to circulate among center staff but don't want students to see, please send the document via e-mail instead.

Click Add Document to add a new document to the event.

Enter the document title, a description, and click Browse… to navigate to the document on your computer. Click Save.

Figure 39: Add a document to an event


You'll be brought back to the Documents tab, where you'll see a listing of the associated documents.

Click Edit to change the document title, description, or change the linked document.

Click Remove to delete the document from the event.

Click Download to download the document to your computer.

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center, you will be able to Download the available document(s), but you won't be able to add any documents. Coordinate with the originating center if you have documents that you'd like to add to the event listing.

Figure 40: Documents associated with an event

Notification Recipients

Click the Notification Recipients tab to add the e-mail address(es) of people who should be notified about new registrants or waitlisted people, based on your selections in Email on Registrations and Email on Waitlistings.

By default, the e-mail address of the user who created the event has already been added.

Click Add Email Recipient to add an e-mail address from the notification list.

Click Remove to delete an e-mail address from the notification list.

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center, you will be able to see the notification recipients on the event, but you won't be able to add any. Coordinate with the originating center if you would like to receive notification e-mails regarding newly registered and waitlisted people.


Messages

Click the Messages tab to manage the messages that appear on your event registration page and registration e-mails to registrants. There are some default messages, but you can customize the messages for your center or event. Be sure to click on Update Messages to save your changes.

Event Banner

This message appears at the very top of your event registration page.

Registration Email

This e-mail message will be sent to people who successfully register for your event.

Waitlisted Email

This e-mail message will be sent to people who have been added to the Waiting List for your event, if you've enabled that option.

Event Full

This e-mail message will be sent to people who attempt to register for an event that has reached its Registration Limit, if you've enabled that option.

Figure 41: Manage event messages

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center, you will be able to see the event's messages, but you won't see the Update Messages button, so you won't be able to edit them. Coordinate with the originating center if the messages need elaboration or correction.


Registrants

Click the Registrants tab to view and manage the people who have registered for an event. People can register for an event using its Invitation URL, but you can also register people from this page.

Add Registrant

Click Add Registrant to search for people to register for an event. The resulting screen looks like the Search Users screen, but with a key difference: The event name is located at the top of the page.

Figure 42: Search for people to register for an event


The next screen shows the users who match your search criteria. You will only see users from your center.

You can register users by individually clicking Register next to each user or clicking the Reg? checkbox next to the desired users and then clicking Commit Registrations.

Figure 43: Register Attendees screen


Email Selected Registrants

If you need to send an e-mail to a few of your event registrants, click the Email? checkbox next to the desired users and then click Email Selected Registrants.

Figure 44: Email Selected Registrants

This brings you to the message composition screen, which lists your selected registrants. Enter an e-mail subject line and message.

If you'd like to include an attachment, click Browse… to navigate to a file on your computer. Click Upload File. If the attachment was successful, you'll see a message at the top:

You have added a new file attachment

Repeat these steps if you'd like to attach multiple files.

Figure 45: Message composition screen


Email All Event Registrants

This works in a similar manner as Email Selected Registrants, but it will send an e-mail message to all event registrants, regardless of the users that you've selected via the Email? checkboxes. If you only want to e-mail a few people, be sure to use Email Selected Registrants.

Figure 46: Email all event registrants

Event Export Tool

The Export Tool link on the Registrants tab lets you choose information from the user profile that you'd like to download. Unlike the Export Tool in the Search Users section, this is restricted to information on the event registrants.

You are normally restricted to viewing the profile information for students at your center, but to facilitate the planning of multicampus events, you will be able to download the selected user profile fields for all registrants, even if they belong to another center.

Click and drag the data fields and profile questions from the left box to the right box.

Rearrange the fields so that the desired sort field is first. If you want the downloaded data to be sorted by last name, make sure that User Last Name is at the top. Since the resulting file is an Excel spreadsheet, you can also re-sort the data after you've downloaded it.

Click Submit Request to download the file.

View Registrant

You can view the record of the person by clicking View next to his/her record.

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center and try to View a user who doesn't belong to your center, you will encounter an error:

You have insufficient permissions to access that function.

To facilitate the planning of multicampus events, you will be able to download user profile fields for all registrants (even if they belong to another center) via the Event Export Tool, but you can't view the user's actual profile.


Unregister

You can remove a person from the event by clicking Unregister next to his/her record.

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center and try to Remove a user who doesn't belong to your center, you will encounter an error:


Waiting List

If you enabled a Waiting List in the event settings and your event has reached its Registration Limit, the Waitlisted tab will appear.

Figure 47: Waitlisted tab

The Email Selected Registrants, Email All Event Registrants, and Export Tool links on the Waitlisted tab work in exactly the same way as the corresponding links on the Registrants tab.

Register

You can manually push a person from the waiting list to the registrant list by clicking Register next to his/her record. Doing this will automatically increase the event's Registration Limit.

Unregister

You can remove a person from the event's waiting list by clicking Unregister next to his/her record.

If you are viewing an event that was created by another center and try to Unregister a user who doesn't belong to your center, you will encounter an error:



Edit Event

If you click Edit in the Actions column, you'll be brought to the Edit Event screen, which lets you edit the event details, including All-Day Event, Directions, Registration Limit, Waitlist, Email on Registrations, Email on Waitlistings, Allow Conflicts, Invited Centers, and SAPEP Categories.

Make the desired changes and click Save at the bottom of the screen.

You can also add Notification Recipients directly from this page.

Figure 48: Edit event screen

If you want to view or add a Sub-event, Documents, Registrants, or the Waiting List, this can be done from View Event.

You can also view the Invitation URL and change the Event Messages from View Event.

Register Attendees

This brings you to the same screen as the Add Registrant link from the Registrants tab.


Copy Event

If your center holds recurring events, the Copy feature will come in handy.

To copy an existing event, click Copy in the Actions column. You will encounter this confirmation message:

Figure 49: Copy Event confirmation

Click OK, and a copy of the event will be created. You'll see the new event listed as "Copy of [Event Name] 1". Click Edit to remove the prepended "Copy of" and the extra numeral at the end of the event name. All settings from the original event have also been copied over, so make any other applicable changes and click Save.

If the original event contained any Sub-events, they will also be copied via this action. The names of the Sub-events will also be renamed to reflect their copy status (Copy of [Sub-event Name] 1). Click Edit to update the sub-event name and make any other applicable changes.

Click Cancel if you don't want to copy the event.

Remove Event

If you'd like to remove an existing event, click Remove in the Actions column. You will encounter this confirmation message:

Figure 50: Remove Event confirmation

Click OK, and the event will be removed.

Click Cancel if you don't want to remove the event.

Past Events

The Past Events tab lists past events at your center, including past event data that we've imported from OIS. For some user roles, the Past Events option also appears if you hover your mouse over the Event Manager tab.


Search for an event

You can search for events based on many different criteria, such as Event Name, Description, Location, and Starting Date Range.

The Display Center(s) search option is for statewide office use, since they can see events at all centers and may need to pare down the search results.

Center users are limited to seeing events at their own center (or to which their center has been invited), so they don't need to bother with the Display Center(s) box. If you leave the Assigned Centers box empty, the search results will still show events from your center.

For some user roles, the Search Events option also appears if you hover your mouse over the Event Manager tab.

Figure 51: Search Events screen


Event Search Results

Now that you've found the desired events, many actions are available to you.

Figure 52: Event Search Results screen

Add Event

This takes you to the Add Event screen.

Export to Excel

This downloads the information that you currently see on the screen into an Excel spreadsheet.

Redo Search

This initiates a new search.

Buttons in the Actions column let you View Event, Edit Event, Register Attendees, Copy Event or Remove Event.

If your center was invited to an event that was created by another center, you'll only see the View and Register Attendees buttons in the Actions column.


My Events

The My Events tab is only available to Advisors, Guests, Students, or Volunteers. You'll see listings of upcoming events, past events, and events for which you are on the waiting list.

Since these roles are only allowed to register for events to which they have been invited, the layout is different from that of a center-level user, who has the Event Manager tab.

Figure 53: My Events tab

View Event

The View Event screen lists the event details. From here, you'll be able to View Event Documents, View a Sub-event, Register for a Sub-event, Print Registration, and Cancel Registration.

Figure 54: View Event (non-center user)


View a Sub-event

The View Sub-event screen lists the sub-event details.

Figure 55: View Sub-event (non-center user)

Register for a Sub-event

While viewing the parent event, click Register under the Actions column to register for a sub-event.

While viewing the sub-event, click on Register for this Event to register.

View Event Documents

If you are viewing an event or sub-event with associated documents, you'll see the Documents tab. If you want to download a document, click on the Download button next to the desired file.

Figure 56: View Event Documents (non-center user)

Print Registration Confirmation

Click Print Registration to print a copy of your registration confirmation, which also contains event details. A printer dialog box will immediately pop up.

Cancel Registration

While viewing the parent event, click Cancel Registration at the top of the page to cancel your attendance in the entire event.

While viewing the sub-event, click on Cancel Registration at the top of the page to cancel your registration in the sub-event.


Survey Manager

This module is in development.

Reporting

This module is in development.


Navigation Tips

Home From anywhere within the MESA DB, you can click Home to return to the Dashboard.

Figure 57: Home button

Breadcrumbs

To save time, you can use breadcrumbs to navigate through the system. For example, say you searched for all students from Orland High and decided to view a specific student's profile. To return to the search results, click on Search Results in the breadcrumbs. This saves you from going through the Search Users screen again and specifying students from Orland High.

Figure 58: Breadcrumbs

Quick User Search

Quick User Search is located at the bottom of the Dashboard. You can search for a user based on First Name, Last Name and/or School. You can log in and immediately search for users from the Dashboard, without having to visit the Search Users page.

Figure 59: Quick User Search


Center Administration

This feature is only available to center administrators. Click Center Admin in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Figure 60: Center Admin button location

Click Edit on the following screen, which lists your center.

Edit Center

From the Edit Center screen, you can edit your center region, name, address, phone number, and Banner.

Figure 61: Edit Center screen


Custom Parental Authorization Form (PAF) All centers are set up to use the default Parental Authorization Form (PAF) in the system.

You can upload a custom PAF. The link to this custom PAF will be included in all registration e-mail notes that are sent to students who register for your center.

Click Browse… to navigate to the document on your computer. Click Save.

To remove the custom PAF and revert back to the default PAF, click on (remove).

To replace the customer PAF with an updated version, click Browse… to navigate to the new document on your computer. Click Save. The updated version will now be used.

Banner

The words, formatted text and links that you specify in the Banner area will appear on the Dashboard between the Main Menu title and the Did you know? quick tips area. All users will see this message upon initial login.

Figure 62: USC's banner


Frequently Asked Questions

Why is student grade level data missing? I can see it in the student profile!

The OIS data didn't provide information about a student's grade level in a specific academic year. When we exported the data, it only contained the students' grade levels for the 2009-10 academic year, and that was the only set that we could consider to be reliable. Grade level data for previous years wasn't available.

We were able to extrapolate some grade level-year associations from student transcript data, but not every student entered transcript information, so this is also incomplete.

You'll only see missing grade levels for students who haven't been active in MESA since 2008-09 or earlier. Since OIS automatically increased each student's grade level each year, regardless of whether or not the student was active in MESA, the grade level that you see in these students' profile is their grade level in 2009-10 – not the grade level in their last active MESA year.